Kometen

[Erik Svedäng]

My new project definitely has some notgamesthink in it, so thanks guys for the influential discussions! Here you can read about it: http://eriksvedang.com/2010/04/26/announcing-kometen/

[Thomas]

Nice trailer!

Too bad I do not own an iphone

[ghostwheel]

Looks beautiful! I hope you do a PC port!

[Michaël Samyn]

Looking forward to it!

[God at play]

Hey, great to see this out.   I look forward to seeing what kind of stuff you added.  Maybe I can convince some iPhone-carrying friends to get it...

[Michaël Samyn]

So? When will this be available?

[Michaël Samyn]

Just checked. It's out!

[Erik Svedäng]

Here's a link: http://itunes.apple.com/se/app/kometen/id371244586?mt=8

If anyone wants a free version send me a PM. It only works in the US Store for some reason tho :/

[ghostwheel]

It looks like a beautiful game! I'd love to try it out myself, no iphone though.

[Michaël Samyn]

It's a lot of fun!

[Michaël Samyn]

It's a very elegant design. I'd be curious to hear how you came to the final idea. Was it there from the start or did it go through many iterations?

[Erik Svedäng]

Thanks! It's always hard to remember exactly how these things goes but I'll give it a try...

I think we came up with the character and the basic swing mechanic in the same discussion, they were very much connected from the start. Back then I thought of it more as a normal game. For a long time we intended to have some kind of challenge at every big planet and when beating it a couple of other planets would be revealed on the map. Around this time I started hanging out on this forum and got more and more convinced that this was not the way to go. I also let my sister play the game and they really liked the concept of just traveling really far through space. As we decided to focus on this the main goal became to make the exploration as interesting as possible. That included making the big planets even more like pieces of art so that you could feel good about finding them and not need more rewards.

The mechanics for moving around were iterated quite heavily in the beginning but always turned out to work best as I implemented them from the very start. We eventually decided to embrace the fact that it's very hard to go in perfect circles... for a while we tried helping the player more with that but it didn't work out. I added the super boost at some point just as a fun idea that felt like it could work; eventually it became very important for the overall structure of the game and how to make eating stuff useful but not critical.

What we were really interested in was to see if people could be OK with just having sensual pleasure as the reward from playing. It seems like there's at least a group of people that can answer that with "yes!"

[Michaël Samyn]

Absolutely! It would be difficult for me to get motivated to play Kometen if there was no goal at all (simply because there is no content to speak of), but the simple goal of reaching a planet makes for a perfect motivation to play. Especially since I get to choose which planet.

[Erik Svedäng]

I'm actually surprised over the number of people who seems to enjoy the lack of goal and structure in the game, I was suspecting a lot more furious hate. Maybe it's because there are more "normal" people owning iPhones, I'm used to the views of hardcore PC gamers. Anyway, it gives me some more hope we might be on the right track here

How was the response to Vanitas and The Graveyard on the iPhone? (or anyone else who has made a game for those devices)

[Jorge]

I just have been trying it for a while. I discovered 3 planets

I really like the concept, specially the how the controls work, orbiting around places and letting yourself wander around. The music is really engaging and really encourages you to explore and have a nice time. It is also very curious to see space depicted this way, it is usually represented as a cold, lonely and empty place, but since I was a child I always have tought there have to be some really amazing things out there and Kometen really brings up this idea ^_^

I'd like more interaction, though. It's nice to find special "characters" going around the same way as you, but I found myself wanting to comunicate or interact with them apart from the fact of just finding them. For example, it would be nice to see some space shuttles inviting you to follow them to show you something, or just asking you to guide them to a certain place. The games inspires freedom, carefreeness and fun, and I'd like to have fun with other characters in the game too. Also, maybe it would be nice doing something in planets. What about colecting items that let you paint over planets? I'd like to make my own drawings too! I see the game (or notgame) as a huge interestellar playground but I'd like more toys to play around with .

Oh! And I'd like to ask something. Have you been inspired by Keita Takahashi's works (Katamari Damacy, Noby Noby Boy)? I think his games have a similar spirit to yours.

Great work, Erik. Keep it up!